Hindi
Imax signs first JV theatre deal in Europe
MUMBAI: Imax and Austrian exhibitor Cineplexx Kinobetriebe have announced a joint venture agreement to install three Imax theatres in Austria. The deal marks Imax‘s first joint venture in Europe, and continues the company‘s global expansion with its new digital projection system.
To date, Imax has signed contracts for more than 180 Imax digital projection systems, with 18 currently in operation and a total of 45-50 scheduled to be in operation by year-end.
The first theatre is expected to be installed in the city of Graz during the first quarter of 2009, followed by a location in Vienna the second quarter of 2009 and a third location in the city of Hohenems during the fourth quarter of 2009. All three theatres will be equipped with Imax‘s new digital projection system.
Cineplexx Kinobetriebe MDs Christian Langhammer and Christof Papousek said, “Installing IMAX theatres in our multiplexes is an enormous benefit for our business and our customers as it enables us to offer a premium immersive movie experience that consumers will be delighted to have in Austria.
“Imax‘s new digital projection system, which can be retrofitted into our existing auditoriums, combined with Imax‘s joint venture business model, offers us an economical and highly efficient way to enter the IMAX business.”
Imax‘s co-chairmen and Co-CEOs, Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley J. Wechsler said, “This joint venture agreement is an important first step for our digital growth strategy in Europe. We believe a partnership with Austria‘s leading exhibitor will help to strengthen our brand in the region and expand our audience base during a time when our film slate and interest from Hollywood studios is at an unprecedented level.”
Imax‘s digital projection system delivers The Imax Experience and helps drive profitability for studios, exhibitors and Imax theatres by eliminating the need for film prints, increasing program flexibility and ultimately increasing the number of movies shown on Imax screens. The system can run both Imax and Imax 3D presentations.
Upcoming Imax films include Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa and The Day the Earth Stood Still which release later this year.
Hindi
Remembering Gyan Sahay, the lens behind film, television and advertising
From a puppet rabbit selling poppadums to Hindi cinema, he framed it all.
MUMBAI: There are careers, and then there are canvases. Gyan Sahay, the veteran cinematographer, director, and producer who passed away on 10 March 2026 in Mumbai, had one of the latter. Over several decades in the Indian film and television industry, he turned lenses, lights, and the occasional puppet rabbit into something approaching art.
A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, Sahay built his reputation as a director of photography across a career that stretched from the early 1970s all the way to the digital age. He was the kind of craftsman who understood that a well-composed shot is not merely a technical achievement but a quiet act of storytelling.
For most Indians of a certain age, however, Sahay will forever be the man behind the rabbit. His direction of the iconic long-running television commercial for Lijjat Papad, featuring its now-legendary puppet bunny, gave the country one of its most cheerfully persistent advertising images. It was the sort of work that sneaks into the national subconscious and takes up permanent residence.
His big-screen credits as cinematographer include Anokhi Pehchan (1972), Pagli (1974), Pas de Deux (1981), and Hum Farishte Nahin (1988). In 1999, he stepped behind a different kind of camera altogether, making his directorial debut with Sar Ankhon Par, a drama that featured Vikas Bhalla and Shruti Ulfat, with a cameo by Shah Rukh Khan for good measure.
On television, Sahay was particularly prized for his command of multi-camera production setups, a skill that made him a go-to technician for large-scale shows and reality programmes. In an industry that has never been especially patient with complexity, he was the calm hand on the rig.
In later life, Sahay turned teacher. He participated regularly in masterclasses and Digi-Talks, often hosted by organisations such as Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna, sharing hard-won wisdom on cinematography, the comedy of timing in a shot, and the sweeping changes brought by the shift from celluloid to digital. He was also said to have been involved in a project concerning a biographical film on Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy.
Tributes from the film industry poured in following the news of his passing, with colleagues remembering him as a senior cameraman who served as a rare bridge between two entirely different eras of Indian cinema. That is, perhaps, the finest thing one can say of any craftsman: he kept up, and he brought others along with him.
